Gianfranco Tripodo (b.1981, Philippines) has a degree in Media Science and Semiotic fromt Bologna University. After graduation he spent a brief period in Milan and then I moved to Spain, where he has lived since 2005. His work has been published in: The New York Times, The Financial Times Weekend Magazine, Monocle, Der Spiegel, L’Espresso and Rolling Stone. Gianfranco is represented by Contrasto.

About the Photograph:

“This image is part of my on-going project about migration in the far southern border of Europe, in the two Spanish enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla. The project is called Frontera Sur, and is about the path that thousands of migrants travel from Morocco to the border of the enclaves until they reach Spanish soil. This particular photograph was taken during an Easter celebration inside the offices of Elin, a Ceuta based NGO that help sub-Saharan migrants with Spanish language classes and general assistance. It was a very intense moment while they were praying and wishing to finally reach Europe.”

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Bego Antón (b. 1983 Spain) is a documentary photographer based in Barcelona. She studied journalism at the University of the Basque Country and specialised in documentary photography in Barcelona. Her photographic work usually explores the love-hate relationships humans have with nature and animals. She also shows particular interest in the small groups that seem strange to a part of society. Her work has been published in The Brithis Journal of Photography, Stand Quarterly and Pretty Good Summer, among others. She has been chosen as a participant in the Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo 2014.

About the Photograph:

“Some years ago I suddenly became interested in taking pictures in a campsite. My aunt and uncle had gone camping for years in the same campsite in the south of Spain so I decided to call them and ask if I could join them for the summer. What I didn’t k now (nor any member in our family did) was that the campsite was actually a naturalist campsite. I had a huge freedom to take pictures. I used to walk only holding my Hasselblad in my hands and the light meter hanging from my neck. The girl in the picture had just arrived in the campsite and was mounting her tent. We’d been talking for a while when she went inside to mount the mat, and that’s when I made the photo. Everything seemed to work inside the frame.”

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Carlos Spottorno (b.1971, Hungry) was raised in Rome, Paris and Madrid. He began his career as an art director and switched to photography in 2001. Since then Carlos has combined long term documentary projects with both editorial and commercial assignments. He has received awards from World Press Photo in 2003, YIPPA in 2011, American Photography 24, 26 and 27 and was a finalist for a Visa d’Or in 2008, the European Publishers Award in 2009 and 2013, and RM Photobook Award in 2012. His photographs have been published in National Geographic España, El País Semanal, D Magazine and Marie Claire France among others. Carlos has published four books: History Seekers (Blur Ediciones), China Western (La Fabrica), Philosophia Naturalis (self published) and La Hora del Recreo – Break Time (Lünwerg). He is featured with Reportage by Getty.

About the Photograph:

“A cow stands on a sidewalk of a newly built dormitory suburb on the outskirts of Jerez, a city that illustrates everything that went wrong in Spain: rapid growth based on seemingly limitless borrowing, which produced a glut of houses and office space that nobody wants, right where the city abruptly ends. This mid-sized city of 212,000 people owes one billion euros; second only to Madrid. Unemployment in Jerez is around 34 percent. I find this image particularly disturbing. Wild or farm animals in an urban context are always a sign that something is not going as it should. That cow seems to be lost; with its neck streched, as if it was looking for the way back to the farm. All that garbage right on the plants… this is truly the frontier where an artificial city clashes with the countryside. Those boxy buildings, the empty street… all that shows exactly what happened: they bought the land from a farmer. They built in a rush, but they went bankrupt before selling everything they built. Now nobody is taking care of anything.”

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Anthony Delgado (b. 1954, USA) is a San Francisco based photographer, who has been pursuing a passion for photography in a more conscious manner since 2007. In the 30 years prior, he worked as graphic designer for a variety of hi-tech, food and sports clients. His work has appeared in individual and numerous group shows. A selection of his photographs from the 2009 Holy Week processions in Sicily were published in PDN.

About the Photograph:

“During Holy Week in Seville there are sixty different religious processions by recognized brotherhoods, each with their colors and symbols. The tall pointed cap—the capirote—recalls the KKK in the minds of most Americans. The actual origins of the costume date back to Inquisition, hardly a better association but are now viewed as a means of creating anonymity among the Nazarenos — that their participation should be an anonymous offering and not a prideful exhibition. This photograph of the brotherhood La Cena—The Last Supper, was taken on the first day of processions, Palm Sunday, during a pause while the procession readied itself to pass before the main viewing stands in Plaza San Francisco. The red poles they carry are candles and a typical activity for children along the procession route is to ask for wax to be dripped on to a ball —the object being to form the largest wax ball possible. Despite the initial alarming association invoked by the costumes, viewing the processions through the week helped me look past that and see them in context of Spanish culture.”

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Joel van Houdt (b. 1981, The Netherlands) is an independent photojournalist based in Kabul, Afghanistan since 2010. He studied photography and design in Bradford, UK and graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2003. Before moving to Afghanistan he worked on stories in a resurgent Russia waking up to an oil boom and from 2007 to 2010 on his project Entering Europe, documenting the life of an educated Moroccan before, during and after he illegally sneaks into Spain. Alongside his decade-long work for Dutch newspapers and magazines Joel’s work has appeared in various publications including The Sunday Age, Der Spiegel, Stern, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times Magazine.

About the Photograph:

“I took this picture when I flew back to the islands after the police finally released my memory cards with the pictures from Mohamed’s crossing. We arrived on a small island, La Graziosa, and were all arrested by the only police officer and the villagers. In court I was asked to name the captain of the boat, I refused because that’s not my job as a journalist and against my ethics. A captain can get up to eight years in prison. After this they decided to keep all my photographs as evidence. I needed a very good lawyer and six months to get them back. It was early evening, six months after Mohamed arrived illegally in Spain. He’s sleeping in a house of a friend while trying to get asylum, which never happened. This is around the time he started to realize that living in Europe wasn’t going to be as easy as he imagined. He moved to Europe’s mainland where he was able to live from food donations from a church among others but couldn’t find work. Mohamed arrived in September 2008 a week before the economic crisis. He’s been jobless and illegal ever since.”

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Alvaro Deprit (b.1977, Spain) has been living in Italy since 2004 and divides his time between Rome and Istanbul and is particularly interested in Turkish culture and its modernization, changes in post-Soviet South Caucasus, and immigration in Europe. Alvaro has exhibited his photos in Rome, Barcelona, London and New York. His clients and publications include: Newsweek, Internazionale, Vanity Fair, Viva Magazine, El Periodico, Yo Dona, Glamour, Sette, Altari, L’Espresso among others. In 2012 he was selected for “PHotoEspaña Descubrimientos” and won the “PHotoEspaña OjodePez Human Values Award”.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph is part of a work about the world of Western films made in the south of Spain. The restaurant is located in the square where they filmed the final duel of the movie “For a Few Dollars More”. I waited for the moment in which the frame of the film coincided with the image of the painting of the wall. In the 70s and 80s, the Tabernas desert near Almeria became the Hollywood of Westerns. It was here that legendary filmmaker Sergio Leone made movies like “Once Upon a Time in the West”, “For a Fistful of Dollars”, and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. In the 90s, filmmakers stopped making movies in Almeria mainly because the conditions were no longer affordable. The film sets were turned into fairgrounds or were abandoned, and the people who worked and lived around the cinema circuit, such as stuntmen and extras, dedicated themselves to doing Western performances to attract tourists. The economic crisis in Spain has also affected this industry, which is yearning for the glory days of Western movies.”

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Ester Jové Soligue (b.1978, Spain) moved to the United States and graduated from the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the ICP. Her work has been exhibited in Spain at The Center for Cultures and Cross-Border Cooperation Cappont Campus, Morera Museum, Mercat del Pla Museum, Pardinyes’ Contemporary Culture Centre, and also at ‘Visa off’ in Perpignan, France. In New York she has exhibited at the ICP and Studio 304. Her work has been published in the New York Times and Diagonal Newspaper. She received the ‘Ciudad de Gijón’ scholarship and has won a TV3 award that featured her work on Catalan television and published a group book called ‘Nuevas Miradas’. Ester is currently featured on the Emerging Talent roster of Reportage by Getty Images.

About the Photograph

“This picture is part of the series I made of my grandmother Carme during a visit to Spain in 2008. Carme and my grandfather Pere got married over sixty years ago in the postwar period. Two years later, they began building their own home on the land they worked on as farmers everyday of the year. My two older brothers and I grew up in that home. In 2004, their home was demolished to make space for a new housing development. She and her family had to move into a new house, forcing her to leave behind what she had built and fought for. Carme passed away nine months ago, at the age of 93.”

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Alberto Paredes (b. 1973, Spain) graduated in Journalism from the Universitat Autonoma in Barcelona and has attended photography workshops with Antonin Kratochvil, Ferdinando Scianna and David Alan Harvey. Since 2000 he has worked as a freelance specializing in social and travel features. Alberto’s photographs have been published in magazines and newspapers such as The New York Times, The Observer, El País Semanal, L’Equipe, Viajar, Frommer, La Reppublica. In 2002 he was awarded a first prize in Euro Press Photo Awards by Fuji. He is currently based in Madrid.

About the Photograph:

“For the past two years I have walked 2.500 kilometers following different routes of the The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St. James. Pilgrims from all over the world have come to Spain on foot since the Middle Ages. In addition to people undertaking this religious pilgrimage, there are many travelers and hikers who walk the route for non-religious reasons. Instead of making a feature quickly, driving my car, with pictures of pilgrims and landscapes for commercial travel magazines (my regular income), I decided to become a pilgrim myself and photograph what a pilgrim sees. Most of the photos are about my feelings than merely descriptive. This is the beginning of an ongoing project about rural Spain. I feel comfortable taking pictures where apparently nothing happens. Old villagers are open to speak with strangers about themselves and their environment, and that makes me feel I have a better understanding of what I am shooting.”

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Markel Redondo (b. 1978, Spain) is a freelance photographer based in Bilbao, Spain. He studied photography in the United Kingdom and China where he started working as a freelance photographer for various international news agencies, newspapers and magazines. In 2008 he returned to Bilbao, where he works on commissions and personal projects. His clients include: Time, Le Monde, The Times, Le Figaro Magazine, New York Times, Monocle, Greenpeace, Wall Street Journal, Internazionale, UNESCO and The British Council. He was a finalist at Photo España 2007 “Descubrimientos”, Eddie Adams Workshop in 2007, Angkor Photography Festival 2007, Finalist “City of Gijon” International Photojournalism Award 2009 & 2010, and Photo Ireland Festival 2010.

About the Photograph:

“Eliseo, Carlos and German Barrera, are all from the same family and are currently unemployed. In Espera, Andalusia, approximately eighty percent of its inhabitants are currently unemployed due to the financial crisis. The town’s economy moved from farming to construction at the beginning of the decade and now almost all the construction companies have closed their doors, as there are no property buyers. The situation is critical. With some families having serious problems bringing food to the table.”

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Anders Hansson (b.1979, Sweden) began working as a full time photographer in 1998 after studying sociology and languages in addition to working as a journalist during the nineties. Since 2000 he has been covering social issues around the world. From the Congo and Benin in Africa to Svalbard in the Arctic north – always with the common man in focus. His work has been published in most of the major Scandinavian newspapers and magazines including Politiken(DK), Berlingske(DK), Aftenposten(NO), Suomen Kuvalehti(FI), Hufvudstadsbladet(FI), DN(SE), SVD(SE), Aftonbladet(SE), Ordfront(SE), ETC(SE), Focus(SE) among others. Anders is a member of Kontinent, a photography agency based in Stockholm.

About the Photograph:

“This photograph is part of a story about young bullfighters in Spain. Antonio Molina, 17 years old, in his white ‘Traje de Luces’, is seen here getting ready to enter and take on the first of two bulls at the Plaza de Torres in northern Madrid. ‘The fear is a natural part of bullfighting’, says Antonio. Even though I have a critical view bullfighting, I can’t help being fascinated by the young boys dreaming of a future as a celebrated Torero. I was following a few boys 13 to 16 years old during a Fiesta on the outskirts of Madrid. It was often bloody and cruel, but the pride and courage of these boys still fascinates me. Antonio was one of the most talented “Novilleros” at the bullfighting school in Madrid.”

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About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.